12 First Lines That Got Me to Read the Entire Book (and Series)
Sometimes there are books that just seize you in the first few words. They grab your attention, they keep you guessing, they hold the promise of something electric and fantastic to come. Nothing has the same magic as the perfect first line of a wonderful book. And so, we bring you some of our favorite first lines! Some are dark, some are funny, but all are captivating—and will lead to some brilliant reads!
The Hearts We Sold
By Emily Lloyd-Jones
“A demon was knitting outside the hospital.”
Strange the Dreamer
By Laini Taylor
“On the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky.”
Love & Other Carnivorous Plants
By Florence Gonsalves
“No one wants to be that girl who locks herself in the bathroom on her birthday like she’s on the brink of a nervous breakdown, but here I am, leaning my elbows on the toilet bowl, inhaling God knows how many private-part diseases, all in the hope of freeing myself of this birthday cake while freeing myself of my best friend’s wrath.”
Finding Yvonne
By Brandy Colbert
“There are three things I know about my father: He smokes pot daily, he doesn’t like to speak unless he really has something to say, and he is one of the most respected chefs in Los Angeles.”
The War Outside
By Monica Hesse
“Of all the things that happened there, in that place full of enemies and dust and spies and sadness; of all the things Margot said to me – the calculations that sounded like friendship, the casual shattering of my life – out of all those things, I am grateful for only one: that I never loved her.”
A Wrinkle In Time
By Madeleine L’engle
“It was a dark and stormy night.”
Uglies
By Scott Westerfeld
“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.”
Twilight
By Stephenie Meyer
“I’d never given much thought to how I would die—though I’d had reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.”
We Should Hang Out Sometime
By Josh Sundquist
“When I was twenty-five years old, it came to my attention that I had never had a girlfriend. At the time, I was actually under the impression that I was in a relationship, so as you can imagine, this bit of news came as something of a shock.
The Darkest Part Of The Forest
By Holly Black
“Down a path worn into the woods, past a stream and a hollowed-out log full of pill bugs and termites, was a glass coffin. It rested right on the ground, and in it slept a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives.”
Killing Mr. Griffin
By Lois Duncan
“It was a wild, windy southwestern spring when the idea of killing Mr. Griffin occurred to them.”
The 100
By Kass Morgan
“The doors slid open, and Clarke knew it was time to die.”
